The present invention relates to a monitoring system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a monitoring system for monitoring VOC emissions in an enterprise.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released into the atmosphere are believed to contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone or smog. Sewage treatment facilities, electronics manufacturers, chemical manufacturers, woodworking industries, baking facilities, dry cleaners, petroleum refineries, printers and painting operations are believed to release VOCs into the atmosphere.
VOC emissions from painting operations may be subject to federal, state and/or local permit limits. Some permit limits regulate specific painting line emissions, and other permit limits regulate an entire plant. In order to comply with these limits, operators of painting operations report emissions and deviations in operating parameters on a regular or periodic basis (e.g., quarterly).
It is generally known to limit the use of VOC emitting paints by substitution of powder coatings, which may not emit VOCs. However, such powder coatings are disadvantageous because they are relatively expensive and create a relatively large amount of waste materials. Some have attempted to limit the number of VOC emissions by monitoring total VOC emissions from painting operations and recording information on a computer. However, such known monitoring is disadvantageous because it does not necessarily fully allow networked access of the information across the business enterprise, could be bypassed by a paint spray operator and does not provide VOC emission data on demand.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a VOC monitoring system for acquiring data and performing calculations to provide essentially real time customizable reports that indicate regulatory compliance for the application of spray coatings. It would also be advantageous to provide a VOC monitoring system that keeps and maintains adequate records to meet state and federal limits for VOC emissions produced by the surface coating of metal furniture. It would also be advantageous to provide a VOC monitoring system that facilitates overall monitoring of the manufacturing process for the application of spray coatings. It would also be advantageous to provide a VOC monitoring system that reduces the likelihood of user error, facilitates accurate recording of data, restricts access to the data, provides data integrity and provides a vehicle to correct data errors. It would also be advantageous to provide a customizable or adaptable user interface adaptable to variations or changes in a spray coating. It would also be desirable to provide for a monitoring system having one or more of these or other advantageous features.
The present invention relates to a system for monitoring the emission of VOCs in a workstation including a sensor to obtain a signal representative of the amount of coating discharged in the workstation, a database for storing data values representative of the signal, a network configured for allowing access to the database and at least one computing device for access to the database over the network and providing a user interface for presenting information representative of at least a portion of the data values.
The present invention further relates to a system for monitoring the emission of VOCs in a workstation in a work environment accessible by users including a sensor to obtain a signal representative of the amount of a coating discharged in the workstation, a local database configured to store data values representative of the coating, a corporate database configured to retrieve the data values from the local database and a network configured to permit manipulation of the data values in the corporate database.
The present invention further relates to a method of monitoring the emission of VOCs in a workstation including measuring a signal representative of the amount of a coating discharged in the workstation, storing a data value representative of the amount of a coating discharged in the workstation in a database, inputting data values representative of the coating in the database and representative of the data values.